Recently, at one of my Engineer Your Own Success seminars, an engineer came up to me on the break after I had just finished talking about resumes and interviews. He told me an interesting strategy that he had employed successfully on several accounts when interviewing for new jobs.

He would research a prospective employer prior to a job interview and then, during the interview, he would present a detailed plan for his first 30 to 90 days with the company. He would literally refer to specific projects they were working on and how he planned to contribute to them. He was basically giving them a window into the future to see what it would be like if they hired them.

He even went so far as to research some of the design procedures and guidelines and then discuss how he would implement them—or even improve them.

This may sound excessive on his part, but I thought it was brilliant, which is why I am sharing it with you. I have always maintained that if you can identify a prospective employer’s need and tell them how you can fill it, the chances of you getting hired are very good. This engineer was taking it one step further. Not only was he telling them how he could fill their need, he was actually painting a picture of himself doing it, so they could see it!

In today’s market, you have to be creative and stand out in some way to get a job, whether it’s doing what I’ve described or coming up with your own way to get your prospective employers’ attention. Be unique, be different, and be yourself—but most of all be smart, and use your time in the interview to make it very clear to the prospective employer how you can help them and why they should hire you.

This is a guest post by Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success. Anthony found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website atEngineeringCareerCoach.com and subscribe to the top 3 resources Anthony has used to become a partner in a firm at the age of 27.